Taxi line at Shanghai airport--good thing we had a van waiting for us!

A nice Shanghai dinner

Unposed scene at dinner--I love this photo!

The most-advanced toilet I have ever encountered.

A dreary day in Zhou Zhuang

After Guangzhou, we departed for Shanghai. Over the following two days, we heard 93 auditions and put in two more 13-hour days. We did have a free day in Shanghai, though, which allowed us a nice break. However, it was raining (the only rain that we have seen on this trip!), but we continued with our plans to visit Zhou Zheng.

Zhou Zheng is an ancient village from the 11th century which is surrounded by water and rice patties. It was nice to get out of the city and see the natural countryside. We walked around for an hour, had lunch, did some shopping, and then headed back to Shanghai. What should have been an 1.5 hour trip took three hours because of traffic, so we ended up going right to dinner at 91st floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center, which is the tallest building in China and third tallest building in the world. What a view! It was a great way to end an exhausting couple days of auditions.

The following day we departed for Beijing. In Beijing, we will be listening to 160 auditions over three days. Auditions are held at the China Conservatory of Music (not to be confused with the Central Conservatory of Music). When we arrived, we were met by the president of the conservatory, who greeted us with warm words.

In Beijing, we will have three, 14-hour days of auditions. We are in the middle of day two right now. We started at 9:00 a.m. this morning, and we will conclude around 11:30 p.m. We essentially return to our hotel rooms to sleep for a couple hours, and then repeat the following day. We do have a free day coming up, though, on which we are planning a trip to see the Great Wall. Over the past two years, I have spent about 10 days in Beijing and I have never seen any of the sights because I was working from morning to night. So, I am VERY excited to see the Great Wall. I was told that it is very cold there at this time of year, so I hope I have enough warm clothes.

I will probably have the chance to send one more blog update at the end of the trip. Until then, back to auditions!